Our little blessing

It has been quite some time from my last post, we have had many things happen so I will try to break them down without sounding like it is a list.  First we have been real busy with different events like survival / emergency prep for the Stake.  We had been chosen to adopt from a wonderful birth mom who was and is such an angel.  She despite my questions and silly ways still picked us. On August 20, 2011 she delivered us a baby boy.  We were so happy and he is so sweet.  I am a sap for a dad he make a little sound and I jump to hold him.  I almost wish I did not have to ever put him down.  Miriam has stepped up and become the best little stay at home mom I could ever pray for.  The new little man was given the name of Wyatt and we both love him so much we do not know what we did without him.  Our lives have been changed for the better so much but we can even see how much the grandparents have been changed as well.  In fact we have begun to see the grandmothers try to one up each other just to get to spend time with him.  We will be posting pictures on our site at a future time (soon) so that everyone can see our little man.

Simple

So this post is just a simple one, I just enjoyed my lunch today and it was one of the best ones I have had in a long time.  I am sure your thinking what did he have, was it some new and exciting restaurant.....?.....NOT a chance it was a simple PB&J made by my loving wife.  She got up early this morning and made me a PB&J with all my favorites.  White bread, Jiff extra chunky peanut butter and strawberry preserves.  She even gave me the extras that I love 2 kiwi fruits and Ruffles potato chips.  I hope when I have children they will grow up knowing the joys of PB&J.  My mother made me one for lunch just about everyday and even on my mission it was a major staple of my diet.  Bad news peanut butter is a kidney stone in a jar so I cannot have many but one every so often will not kill me.

LET'S HEAR IT FOR PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY SANDWICHES!!!!!!!!

Long time no post

It has been a long time between my last post and this one so please hang on it is going to be a bumpy ride.  First things first....My co-worker that was thinking about adoption that showed up at my desk with his wife have filled out the paperwork and are back in doing foster care.  They have both shown up at my desk again asking advice about how to make a blog, website and how to advertise their desire for adoption.  So I will continue to work with them as time permits.  Second, item of business the FSA conference is real soon so anyone who has the ability to go should.  Previous years has proven to be such an experience and all who have attend it have come away with such a new outlook on adoption that is worth going of you can.  Miriam and I were going and had request a day off from work but because of some stuff going on around the house we are not going to be able to attend.  Local Colorado FSA members are going to be speaking so showing them support is both a reward and a blessing.  Third we have a saga at our home have you ever had something that you set in a "safe place" because you know that your going to need it and well now that we need it we cannot remember what "safe place" we put the stuff in.  That is going on in our home we have some missing parts to some furniture that has been in storage and we know that we put the hardware in a safe place and now we cannot recall the location of the hardware.   I ordered the replacement parts from the manufacturer today and wow the 7 little screws cost me $30.  In one though I say that is expensive on the other I see this as cheap way to make my wife happy at me.  Forth continuing with the furniture topic we went to IKEA because our friend wanted to go on opening day.  We went and had dinner then attempted to walk.  SO MANY PEOPLE!!!! we could not even make our way around to see things people were in the way everywhere.  So we did not stay long we figured we could always go back later to wonder around.

As with most of my posts I want to post a question.... The question is while we were at church on Sunday we had many people giving their testimonies and all were wonderful but we had two that seemed to stick out in everyone mind.  First one was a man who is a truck driver and was only passing through town.  He missed his wife and was on the road and wanted to express his love for her and his father in Heaven. Very true and simple testimony.  Second was a young woman who is new to the ward, she got up and was telling about how she is 23 and finds herself pregnant with her first child abandon by the father and her family to deal with the child on her own.  Oh what a blessing Miriam and I just happen to be adopting and have knowledge of the adoption process.  This girl does not need to go this alone she needs to talk with Kelly at Family Services.  So we gave her a copy of our pass-a-long cards and Family Services numbers.  Giving her additional info like this could lead to someone who can not have children to her and may even open the door for an adoption.  So was it wrong for us to pass on our information after sacrament meeting??  Should we have left her to find her own way?  This was the delima with talking to anyone right after.

I never saw it that way...

So the other day I had someone at work ask me if I was still trying to adopt, I explained that yes we are working on the adoption process and that it keeps going slow and steady.  He then tells me a real sad story of how he and his wife have not been able to have children and that they looked into several options but never felt that any of then felt right.  He went on to say that one day he stopped by the reception desk at my work and noticed one of our pass - a - long cards and picked it up and put it in his pocket (and forgot about it.)  Later that week his wife was working on the laundry and found the card in his shirt and looked it over.  After looking it over she decided to get on the computer and look up our website and blog then linked out to the it's about love site.  She was shocked that anyone would put out cards and build web pages for adoption.  But later told her husband (my coworker) that it felt right.  So later that evening they logged in to the web again together and began to explore other couples blogs and profiles.  At one point with tears running down both of their faces looked at each other and at the same time said "this is right" and "this is what we need to do".  So the next Monday (yesterday) my coworker sent me an email asking if he could come and talk with me about this.  I was so excited to see that the cards were doing what they could to get the word out.  This morning my coworker and his wife (who does not work with us) showed up at my desk and we had about a hour and twenty minute discussion about adoption, and how it works, and what they need to do to get started.  They made notes and said that they would need my help with a blog and webpage and contact information so that they could get started.  We went over all that and made a plan to talk again next week after they have had time to get the ball rolling.  Wow, again to feel like we helped someone else on the path to a family felt so great.  This was an eye opener for me because I felt that when we started down the path we had help because of the FSA group but for many others they do not know how to even get started and if their is anyone else like them out in the world.  Because of this I am going to try to get some detailed information together about how to get started and post on our blog/site and see if we may want to put it out on the FSA blog as well so that as couples explore the world of adoption they have more information at hand to help them be a success.

This brings me to this posts question:
What types of things would be helpful for people who are new to the idea of adoption and might help then on their way down this long and sometimes painful process?

False Impressions

So I have been under a false impression (only within my own head and trying to make myself believe it) that when we have adopted that our lives will slow down.  Well I have given up on trying to make this happen, I know that even with as busy as we are now it will only be 5 times more crazy after having children.  But I can say it will be worth every minute.

So a few updates and then some new stuff, we did go and do the blessing and just a few minutes before the meeting started I offered to my brother and father one last chance to let grandpa do it.  Both declined in fact my brother even started with "your going to chicken out" talk and so I did it.  I must say how special it was to both be picked and to do the blessing.  It went off perfectly and we had no issues.  Okay maybe a few first the young man that was asked to hold the Mic insisted on pushing it up under the baby's dress so everything was a little muffled and ruffled by that.  And the grandpa and the Bishop both were bouncing her up and down I was worried that they were going to toss her out of the circle.  The little one was a champ she just continued to make little noises and handled it with out problems.

This week has been a fast moving week we have had plenty of things going on but one of the highlights were that we went to see our nieces talent show.  She did so good, her singing was great and she put her heart into it.  (They grow up so fast)  Several other students did very good, they had one girl who did a hula-hoop dance and it was crazy good, and a young man played the guitar and it was some of the best playing that I have experienced in a while.

Miriam also had the book fair going on this week at the school and that is always a crazy time but the late night (last night) went real good and it seemed that the weather only caused some slow times but it seemed to go over without a hitch.

We have a birthday party on Saturday, the Relief Society breakfast, 5K for Adoption and Ham Radio stuff going all on Saturday so at some point something will give...

This posts question is how do single parents do it, with school, work, and church activities I would not be able to handle it all by myself, so how do they do it?

Blessings?

My brother and his wife finally were able to bring home their baby from the hospital after being born much to early.  She is so very cute and we just love holding her.  My mother is in grandma heaven and my father is still my father.  This brings me to the question:

My brother and his wife have asked me to give this little angel a name and a blessing this Sunday.  I am so excited, and worried.  I know that he has asked me and I am always excited to do this but I almost want him to know that even with it being a great honer for me it would be even that much more to our father.  Grandpa in many respects be the one doing this for them, showing them the power of the priesthood in the home and what benefits it can bring to faithful families in Zion.  So I am very conflicted over this, without making him feel bad or putting pressure on them I feel that it may be even that much better for him to do this for him.  So what do I do? How do I express my feeling of so much joy that they asked me and yet I think this is a job for grandpa?  Feel free to share your thoughts on this....

Weekend of Fun

This weekend was crazy fun!  First on Friday I had to go get a root canal done on one of my teeth.  (not much fun)  But Saturday was recovered by the Colorado FSA conference.  We went for the full day, they had many good seminars and classes to attend and learn from.  They had several panel discussions that were from both the adoptive couple side and from the birth mothers sides, and they even had one of people who were adopted. Every single discussion seemed to pull at our hearts.  We had such a great time seeing others who are a part of the FSA world, people who have adopted already, some like us that are waiting, and other that are just getting in to the adoption world.  We had a personal visitor show up at the conference and it was great that she could come to the conference.

Updates for the week

So the last post I had talked about us going to CPR training and I was hoping to post some great pictures of Miriam and the training dolls.  Well she did not let me take pictures of her and the dolls so I have no pictures.

This week is the FSA Colorado Conference and Miriam and I are so excited to go.  As always we hope that our families would be available to join us at the conference but as of now we have no family joining this time.  We are going to go to the Friday evening get together and dinner for adoptive couples.

Last year we went and had so much fun (even with all the crying) that we could not pass up the chance to go again.

We both are so excited that we both almost want to skip the work week and just go to the conference.

Miriam and I had the chance to go to Michael's home on Saturday and hold the little girl and she is so cute and we both would love to take her home with us (and I am sure when she is crying that her parents would not mind us taking her) but I know that her mom and dad would be so board without her.

As for the week we only have to get past the week to the weekend to enjoy the conference.

Training this evening

To improve ourselves Miriam and I have almost every year have done our CPR and First Aid training so that we can be available to help if needed.  Miriam gets the opportunity to take all kinds of this stuff and training because I always want to be well rounded (not round well).  So this evening we have to update our CPR certification.  It is not our favorite to be that intimate with a plastic Annie or Baby Annie doll but we do it for safety.  So I am going to try to get pictures of us "sucking face" this evening and post them out for everyone to laugh at.

Posting again

I felt that today I again needed to post something on the our missing leaves blog.  So this is today's topic:  I have my ham radio licence and I have been listening to all the chatting about the events in Japan.  First I need to say our prayers are with the people of Japan.  Second I want to say why do people see things like this so differently from the rest of the group.  So I am hearing one of the men on the radio talk about it and he says that he has been listening to a local talk radio host talking about this and he keeps bringing up the fact that we are not seeing people looting in Japan, and we just have the Denver Broncos win and we get riots and looting in the streets of Denver.  So this makes me think that we need to examine our ways of thinking, we have had so many days of big snow in the mountains so this summer we are sure to see flooding and issues like that.  So for traditional thinking in this way we would then have people running to the streets and causing all kinds of trouble.  So my question is why must we be this way.  We are all children of our Heavenly Father so why do some make it bad for others, and are we all pre-destine to be that way or can we use our free agency and change what or who we are?  I feel that each of us can change who and what we are and that we can exercise our free agency and become more like our Father In Heaven.  So why choose his path and become a better person over choosing to go the other way?  That is the question that I am asking everyone following the blog let me know, I know what I feel but lets see what others think?

People's Children At Church

So it has long been my short fall that I am nothing more that a big kid at best.  This being said I love to play with toys, color on the program, and eat snacks like the other children at church.  So like many Sunday's I wage a war to make sure that I get some families with kids around me during our sacrament meeting.  This Sunday ended up being a little tough because we did not get to sit real close to toys, snacks, and crayons so I was a little on the outs with myself.  I have tried for may years to get Miriam to bring those items for me but she tells me that I have to wait until I have a child of my own.  (and no it does not count if I have someone at church loan me their child for the Sunday)  So it is even more important to adopt a child soon so that we can bring the fun to church.  Hahahaha

My current calling is in the High Priest Group (I am the first assistant) and this calling is wonderful but for many Sundays I need to be in the room to teach, conduct, and to participate.  But it just so happened to work out this Sunday for the best.  Miriam works as a Primary worker in the Nursery and she is part of a team teaching group for the children.  Her co-teacher was out sick so they were looking to get someone to help Miriam and well you got it I ended up being the sub.  So I went to Nursery, this again plays right in to my church plan.  The children were playing with toys and I found some balls in the bottom of the toy bucket, I began to get all the children up and taking turns shooting from one side of the room to the other to try to make baskets in the bucket.  This was great some of them were crying for their parents and others were fighting over other toys and when they began to take turns throwing the ball it all fell in line and everyone was smiling and taking turns.  (Miriam was a little worried because the donated toy balls were a wiffle ball and a tennis ball both not very soft but we managed to do this without anyone getting hurt.)  Now I have a good excuse to go to the dollar store and buy some soft sponge balls for the kids to play with.


The long and short of this story is I am a big KID and love to play and have fun with the best of them.

Movie

I am looking forward to this evening with my wife, we have been running like two crazy people and this weekend it the only one we have for the next few that have nothing for us to do.  (We always have something fun going on but this weekend is all my time.)  So I am going to take my wonderful wife to the movies and to dinner for a date.  I was looking over the movies that are available and Mars Needs Moms looks good, along with Rango, and for the non-cartoon Just Go With It.  We most likely will end up at one of the cartoons because we both like the simple and they have good ratings (G, and PG) so they are more safe then the others.  The best part of seeing a movie is watching Miriam's face during the movie.  She has a face that tells her emotions so well that you know how or what she if feeling just by the look on her face.  Plus when we go to the movies she gets her favorite snack a pretzel with cheese to dip it in.  She has such little fingers and it is funny to watch her pull it apart and dip it in the cheese.  I know that I am the only person in the world that would find that so cute but she is my love and I enjoy every little thing about her.

Today at work I am dealing with an issue with one of our outside vendors and it is funny to talk with the people on the other end of the phone and you can just hear the pain in their voices about dealing with us.  We work with them and have called them about 20 times today and it is an issue on their side but they do not know how to fix it so they are just tired of us calling.  I have been in that type of situation before so I feel for them.  Good news is that it is FRIDAY!!!

It is hard to think that just a little while ago we were having snow and today about 60 degrees.  You just have to love Colorado weather.

Last thing today is I want to express my feeling about the earth quake in Japan.  I pray for the people of Japan and pray for them and to those that have lost loved ones please remember that in this time of hurt that your Father in Heaven love all of you and even when we do not understand why things happen he will always be mindful of our needs.  My prayers are with all of them and hope that their needs will be taken care of in the days that come.

What a weekend

This was one crazy weekend...
My one and only sister whom I love very much had been dating a young man who is in all respects a great man.  The only problem is you can only date so long before you need to take that next step.  So after much pushing and poking, and giving a hard time the two of them did it... They got married, it happened in one long but eventful weekend.  My brother - in - law is one of a kind and I know that he has a pure heart.  I see how he make my sister feel and how he takes care of her, and it make me very happy to see her so happy.  Seeing them both so happy is what life is all about.
As part of the fun we had a family get together on Friday night so that all the members of the family could meet the soon to be in - law family.  It was a little funny, when we all went to eat my family all crowded around the table to eat (you can thank my mother for training us that we are to eat at the table and no place else), and his family stood around the island in the kitchen and talked and ate.  It was not like we wanted to keep each family separate from each other but it was how we have been raised.
This aside the families came together on Saturday and put on a great reception party, the location that the party was at was a great location and the weather held out well.  We even had some surprise drop in's from our extended families from Utah.

Now to have fun, when we were at the party it was interesting to see who did and did not get up and dance.  Because I played DJ I picked the music and it was fun to see what songs got people on the dance floor and what songs drove them off.

Songs that had them dancing:
YMCA
She Thinks My Tractor is Sexy
Anything from Lady GAGA

Songs requested but did not get then up on the dance floor:
Elvis - Any
Big Green Tractor
Cotton Eye Joe

I am interested in any suggestions for the next wedding what songs would you like to hear at a wedding?

My Happy - Sad Week (WE NEED A CHILD)

This week is both happy and sad for me in many ways.  First I am so happy to say that on Friday February 11^th Miriam and I will be celebrating our 16^th wedding anniversary.  Time sure does fly when you’re having fun.  It seem as it was just yesterday that we were at the temple waiting for the wedding to happen.  But even better for me she has put up with all my silly silly ways for all these years.  Many people have had us tell the story of our wedding day and some of the crazy stuff but with the cold snap in the weather I felt so much like the day 16 years ago I wanted to share with anyone who is up for a long story. 

We were getting ready for our wedding in February and this says to most of the people who live in Colorado that February = SNOW well it sure did and it snowed good.  That week of our wedding it seemed to snow every day.  Best yet the day before our wedding it came down hard and left many people stranded in their cars and on busses around the city.  At the time I was driving a wonderful 1978 Ford Pinto (had a hard time getting traction in the snow even with great tires) and ended up getting stuck in a snow bank.  I was picked up by my father and we went home leaving the Pinto at the parking lot that it was stuck in.  As days go it was not much fun but the feeling of excitement was flowing in my heart knowing that in a few hours I would be marred to Miriam.  I called her and told her about how I was stuck and that my father was able to get me, she continued to get ready for the next day’s events.  Later that evening I was getting all my stuff together so that the next morning would be smooth at the wedding.  When I remembered that I had forgotten the wedding license in the Pinto.  So after having a conversation (one sided on his side and loud) with my father about going to get the license we headed out to get it in the blizzard.  During our trek my father’s two way radio was going off about busses that were stuck and other fun caused by the weather making him remember that he had forgot to bring home the slide projector so that at the reception we could project slides from his work.  So we made our way over to his work to pick it up good thing we were already out for my forgetfulness (hahah looks like it runs in the family.)  Our small adventure ended up taking several hours and by the time we managed to get home it was very late so we went right to bed.  The next morning was early and because of all the snow we needed to get an early start over to the temple.  When we arrived we were about the first ones in the parking lot but that was good so that we had plenty of time to get ready.  I went in and changed my clothing and was ready for the wedding to start (this is when it gets good do not give up on my story yet) but a small problem I was without a bride.  After several minutes one of the brothers helping with the wedding stepped over to me and said “Brother Staples, the wedding is to start did you bring the bride?”  Well at that minute my already throbbing chest dropped to my knees.  I responded with “My Bride, we live in different areas and she was going to come up with her family…..I, I, I, do not know where she is”… At this point I was sure that I was being stood up at the alter because when I call her house I was not getting an answer and they were very late.  Remember this is before cell phones were around for everyone so I had no way of just calling her on her phone.  At that point they could see that I was beginning to get real worried so they had me sit down and wait a little longer.  About the time I was about to get real panicked in to the front doors my bride walks with her mother in tow behind talking a mile a minute about not being ready.  I went over and asked what was going on (I am sure that at that minute I must have not had any color in my face because Miriam gave me the look like she was seeing the dead) and Miriam rolled her eyes and said that “Mom was not ready so we had to wait” now to a man that was sure that he was being left behind by the woman he loved this was a minute that I felt many feelings that we will not discuss today.  I said that I was grateful that she was ready now and that she should take her mother back and get ready because we were already late.  At the time I did not quite understand the situation but now after being in the family this many years I understand how it is that my then future and now only Mother-in-law was not ready.  I have grown to love my Mother-in-law and now see her need to make sure that everything is perfect, this is who she is and who she raised my wife to be so I am blessed for her methods.  The wedding was amazing and the fun was only beginning, I have had 16 years of fun so far and I cannot wait to see what happens in the future. 

To my bride, wife, and only:

    I would be nothing without you, I take every breath in amazement that you with your wonderful spirit picked me to be your husband.  Every day you have the chance to choose me or not to choose me and yet every day you pick me.  THANK YOU!   To you and all your special ways from taking care of our home, to being the best wife anyone could ever have or want you are truly special.  When you work on your crafts my heart is happy, when you play a game, my heart is happy, when you are even just in the same room my heart is happy, you make my heart happy.  You are a chosen daughter of your heavenly father and carry within your little body an enormous spirit that has the tenderness of a saint built in to it.  That spirit is what keeps me in love with you and know that you will be the most wonderful wife for time and all eternity.  I want you to know that every day when it is time to come home from work to be with you I get so excited that it is as if I am on my way to pick you up for our very first date, you make my heart flutter in excitement and joy and I am as a love sick puppy when I see you.  (I need to stop all the mushy stuff or everyone reading will be sick)

Last thing for this post is WE NEED A CHILD… My wife the woman of my dreams will be the best mother but in order to be a mother we need a child.  So this year is our year we are going to do everything we can to make this happen so if you are reading this we need your help please spread the word, tell everyone do not let Miriam’s mothering skills go another minute without a child to be a mother to.  Pass it on.

MIRIAM I LOVE YOU FOREVER

It's the little things that make us happy

Miriam and I had the opportunity to spend some time with friends this last weekend playing a new game.  Is I write that it sounds a little odd to me spend time with friends like this is something that is different.  Well it is in many ways we are so busy with things to occupies ourselves while we wait for the blessing of a child that we forget the simple things.  So for us to just hang out and play games, talk and laugh it was great.  So to our friends who know who they are thank you so much for the fun!  ;-)

We were watching TV last night and Miriam picked to watch the show Doogie Howser M.D., and it hit me that he would spend time on the computer to write in his journal.  I have long felt that when I write in a journal it had to be some long multiple page entry that caused permanent hand paralysis from gripping the pen so tight.  But for me last nights show was an eye opener.  I had set out to make a journal entry everyday but knowing that it does not need to be some Dan Brown novel to be a good entry.  I am going to use this as a type of therapy to deal with the adoption process.    

Always Something Going On That Makes A Person Think

I was at work this week and had a real interesting talk with a co-worker.  This co-worker is someone that I have not had much contact with we have passed in the halls, and I have worked on their equipment a time or two but not much conversation other than work related stuff.  While I was in the process of fixing his computer this week he said to me that he went out and checked out my website a few months ago.  Because I have more than one I asked what site was he talking about?  He said the one about adoption, he saw it on my signature at the bottom of my email and wanted to see what I was advertising.  At first he wanted to know if we were discussing adoption for other people to get the word out.  But then he read more and figured out that it was both to get the word out for others but for us as well.  He went on saying that after he checked out the site he then went to the other links to our blog and to the profiles page for adoption.  He was real positive about it, and wanted to show his family our site thinking that this was a good way to get the word out.  When he was at home he and his wife were looking and discussing the site and adoption when their daughter came in the room and started talking about how she has a friend at school that is pregnant and not sure what to do with the child when it is born.  Well as they say God works miracles everyday so the father said that he had something to show her and pulled up our website on the computer and they discussed the stuff that he had seen.  The girl then wrote down our website URL and brought it to school with her.  She told her father that she did not want to make her friend feel bad or uncomfortable so she went to the student councilor and gave the information to her.  She then turned around and checked out the site for herself.  From my co-workers information the councilor went on to pass this on to the pregnant girl and others so that they could have a way to contact someone for adoption if that was the way that the wanted to go.  My c-worker when on to tell me that the girl with the baby had placed it up for adoption and was happy with her decision, and that his child was happy that this girl did this and not anything else.  This made my day I was real happy to hear about this (I was a little sad that I was not the chosen father to be for this girls child but it must not have been ours in the first place) getting the word out is what we need to do for ourselves and for others and this is just one way to do this.

This got me thinking about other ways that I can get the word out, how can I make sure that I have everything out so that people know this is happening.  Miriam had an idea the other evening when we went to dinner at a Mexican food restaurant who is getting ready to print new menus and is selling advertising space on them.  Could you really put an adoption advertisement on a menu of a Mexican Food restaurant?  I at this point do not see why not.  I have also wanted to find out that when my work does a health and welfare check and information fair if we could put a booth up and get the word out that way.

Last shocking thing for this entry we were at my families home over the holiday to celebrate and my father out of the blue says "what do we need to do to get you a kid?"  Not that my father is not a great man  but I almost fell on the floor, I did not know he was even interested in this process let alone for him to ask what they could do to make this happen.  My first thought was that he is beginning to get tired of my mother bugging him about us and this adoption thing.  Then my thoughts turned to may be it was us talking about it to much.  But for real at that moment I felt that it was our Heavenly Father touching his heart and letting him know that this was what needed to happen.  So I am now on the hunt to find more ways that he can help get the word out.  How I do not know but I will keep looking for new and different ways for him to help.